


Horizon

by murphysmistake



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Based on Subnautica, Blood and Violence, Eventual Romance, Fish, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Secret Identity, Secrets, Slow Burn, Space Politics, Yuuri has an AI companion who helps him, but loosely, don't be fooled by the science fiction parts!, lowkeybadass!Yuuri, rating and tags may change, there's gay in them there hills!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 03:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19123687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murphysmistake/pseuds/murphysmistake
Summary: Once surrounded by maids, royal guards, and personal attendants, Prince Yuuri Katuski, last-in-line to the galactic throne, was forced to learn how to survive on his own after the Cirrostratus, a massive spaceship destined for his home world, crashed due to mysterious circumstances.Prince Yuuri, the only survivor, had not encountered another human for years, living and surviving successfully on his own on a planet covered entirely by ocean… until a dangerously beautiful man stumbles into his peaceful planet. However, nothing is as it seems. As they grow closer, Yuuri begins to question the man's true identity and the circumstances of his own crash.But something bigger is waiting just below the horizon.





	Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is *very, very* loosely based on the video game Subnautica, but you don't have to know anything about the game to read this. I just based the beginning of Yuuri's circumstance on the beginning of the game (crashed on an alien planet that's entirely ocean). Everything else about the world is my own creation, including the weird alien fish. Enjoy!

It took strength, time, and fancy tools to dislodge the coral. The rock it had grown into was sturdy and (unlike every other surface under the ocean) completely non-porous. He  _ would _ have cut it clean at the base, but he needed its roots, so he had to break the rock apart. 

Finally, he dropped his chisel on the ocean floor, drew in a large breath, and pulled as hard as he could. Once. It didn’t budge. Twice. The diver’s grip slipped, the coral remaining lodged in the rock. Thrice. It released completely, throwing the diver and itself onto the ocean floor, kicking up sand and shells.

He sighed and turned the disk in his hands. Its roots seemed to reach, extend back towards the rock, but the rock was broken up, its pieces now mingling with the sand beneath the diver’s feet. He stretched to grab the pack tucked between his air tank and his back. The disk in its current form would not fit, so he used the chisel to cut the roots off. There wasn’t enough room for the disk itself, so the diver left it with a kiss buried in the sand.

He made his way back to Base. Years had passed on this new world since “makeshift” was an appropriate description of home. Base was no longer his escape pod (which, three months into his living there, had sunk to the bottom of the shallows where it was properly stripped). Base was no longer a small, slimy cave with an air pump. As of four years ago, Base was situated under a cozy overhang, composed of three donut-shaped tubes stacked on top of one another. Two-and-a-half arm-spans in diameter, each metal ring was cool, sleek, and full of windows displaying the the endless ocean outside. Inside the rings sat a garden of tall kelp that spanned from the bottom to the top of the rings that made up most of the Base’s food supply.

The diver smiled as he opened the airlock. This place, his Base, was a marvel. It was the perfect home. When he stepped inside and the water began draining out to sea, a friendly, artificial voice greeted him, ringing softly throughout the compound.

“Welcome back, Yuuri!”

Yuuri tore off his mask to speak. “Thank you, Sirus.”

The water finished draining. He stepped out of the airlock, waddled to a bench, and began lifting off his gear.

“Did you find the coral?”

“Yeah, actually…” he paused while he pulled off a flipper. “It was in the shallows. Only a kilounit or so away.”

“Oh, how exciting! Did you travel safely?”

“I barely encountered any- ugh…” the other flipper stuck until it came off with a  _ pop  _ “...any fish at all.”

“That’s good to hear!” Yuuri stood and started drying off and sorting gear throughout the lower level. “Indeed, the fish seem scarce this time of year. I think it has something to do with the ocean cooling down, but in all our time here, I’ve never recorded any data like this before.”

“Winter?”

“I’m not quite sure. It  _ could  _ be a seasonal change, but I’ve never recorded any other evidence that this planet has definite seasons that we can experience underwater. Some planets have heating and cooling cycles. Maybe we’re experiencing that? I’m just not quite sure yet. I don’t have enough data.”

Yuuri hummed in response, hanging his wetsuit up to dry and pulling on his overalls.  
“Whatever it is, I hope it’s not dangerous.”

“If if it, we would find a way out of it. We always have! Remember when the escape pod flooded and sank? We found our way out of that, somehow!” Yuuri chuckled. “By the way, I have the scanners booted up whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m ready,” he said, closing a locker door and heading to the back of the ring.

Base was organized by function and featured little decoration, a product of the eternal mantra of any castaway:  _ survive, survive, survive. _ There was little  _ use  _ for decoration. The rings were relatively small compared to traditional housing, so there was no place for wasted space. 

The lowest ring housed storage and instrument maintenance. Yuuri stowed the diving gear- flippers, tanks, suits- in lockers and bins lined against the outer wall. A metal ladder in the back of the compound connected the three rings like a spine.

Yuuri reserved the middle ring for living space. It was the safest place in Base. If a rock from the cliff were to fall, it would damage the upper ring. If there was an earthquake, like in the past, the lower ring would usually show the most damage. Nothing short of a direct attack from some alien fish could shake the middle ring (Yuuri still decided to place his cot against the back wall near the overhang just in case, though). The front of the living quarters had a kitchen equipped with a stove, counter space, and icebox. But the living quarters wouldn’t be complete without a desk and comfy chair, a place for Yuuri to study and read.

The upper ring was laboratory space. It was Sirus’ favorite part of the Base, obviously, as it was outfitted with scanners and computers and water filters and things that send electrical charges through other things. Sirus, being a convoluted and unfactored piece of code himself, felt at home. 

But to both of them, Base was home, and it was perfect. Eight years on this strange planet had made it perfect.

Yuuri made his way up the ladder to the highest ring. Bulky machines were whirring and blinking, speaking to one another, to Sirus, who listened carefully.

“Alright, where does everything need to go?” Yuuri asked, slumping his pack on a nearby table.

“If you wouldn’t mind liquifying part of the root-”

“This much?”

“No, half of that… actually, a little more please. Yes, that’s perfect. Would you mind placing that in the third scanner to your right. Yes, that one.”

“This tube or  _ this  _ tube?”

“Either one is fine. Oh, this is amazing! I’m just so excited. If it’s anything like other coral I’ve looked at recently, and I  _ sure  _ hope it isn’t, I think it’ll take me about two hours to fully process. What are you planning to do in the meantime?”

“Hm. I don’t feel like going back out again.”

“I wouldn’t allow you, anyways. It’s getting dark.”

“Hm. But it’s still too early to eat...”

“Are you sure? You just swam two kilounits!”

“Yeah. I think I’ll be hungry in a minute. I need to drink some water, though.”

“Excellent idea. If you don’t have anything to do, I did prepare several more assessments while you were away if you want to continue lessons until dinnertime.”

“I’m a little too tired for math. I think I’ll just write in my journal.”

“Sounds good! I’ll let you know when the sample data is ready.”

Yuuri’s night continued without deviating at all from his typical routine. Just as the sun set on Yuuri’s planet, sighing as it slipped below the horizon, behind the endless ocean, and the waves, the waves, the waves… Change, too, was just over the horizon.

Hundreds of kilounits away, a small starship docks on the edge of Yuuri’s atmosphere. It’s lone pilot fiddles with the knobs on an instrument humming away on the dashboard. Satisfied with his adjustments, the pilot presses a worn, green button. The machines linger and remain dormant, for several moments until the pilot wonders if he navigated to the wrong planet. Then, all the instruments on his little ship jump to life, blinking and whirring and beeping and crying. The pilot smiles, then smiles again, wider, as he takes in the planet beneath him, waiting for him.

“Ah, I’ve found you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to get the next few parts relatively soon (I'm in the process of editing them right now). Also, chapters in the fic are going to be long. Much, much longer than this.
> 
> I apologize for any of the glaring scientific inaccuracies. I would consider myself a scientist, but marine biology is a little far out of my reach. I'm not overly concerned with making sure every detail is provably correct. From my perspective, that's not entirely fun to write when I'd rather focus more on the characters in this story. So, I'm really only concerning myself with this: is the world I'm working with somewhat believable? Is the way the world influences the plot/characters believable and interesting?
> 
> Ah! I'm so excited for this fic!!


End file.
